Sunday, January 4, 2015

First gold of the year

I got a call on Saturday from the WGF biologist, Dan Thiele, in Buffalo about two Golden Eagles found near town and unable or unwilling to fly. As Buffalo is about three hours from here, I was not looking forward to that drive in this weather. Luckily Brad Rogers, the Buffalo USFWS agent offered to bring the birds here. He and his wife arrived around noon.

These eagles are both about 9-10 months old, I believe they're both males, and are just stunning. The one shown above, JANUS, has what appears as a fractured right radius or ulna but I don't think both bones are broken. It is in excellent position so xrays will show just what is needed to help him.

The other eagle, DEUX, doesn't show any damage but refused to fly when approached for capture. I will have some tests run on him to see if we can pinpoint what's keeping him grounded.

These two babies are the first to come in this year, hopefully they will also be released within a few months.

UPDATE: JANUS does have a fractured ulna but it is in excellent position and even has a callus started at the fracture line. That means the injury happened a couple weeks ago. He must have been very good a catching food as he is in relatively good weight.

DEUX has roundworms so he's on medicine for three days and then that's repeated in 18 days. He is already feeling better and sitting on the shoulder high wall perch in his pen.

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About Me

Born in Downers Grove, IL, I moved to Cody in 1981 after living in Boulder, CO for many years. As I enjoyed the outdoors and spent many weeks up in Wyoming going on horsepacking trips with friends, I decided to move here. I started Ironside Bird Rescue in 1987 after finding an orphaned Starling baby that had fallen out of its nest near my house. One thing led to another and after all these years the facility now has many different sized mews and flight barns for the exercise of raptors so they will be strong enough for release. I live in a 130+ year old log cabin with a corgi mix dog, her mother, a purebread corgi, a couple cats and many birds in a free flight aviary attached to the house. I'm now retired from a "real job". Along with rehabbing birds, I spend a lot of hours volunteering at our local Buffalo Bill Historical Center in the graphics department.